Iris Experience takes centre stage at Event Awards

Congratulations to Iris Experience, who walked away with the top prize at this year’s Event Awards.
The agency, whose clients include Sony Ericsson, Sony Electronics, PlayStation, Amnesty International and Unilever, was placed in four other categories at this year’s ceremony.

Iris won Creative Event of the Year for Sony Ericsson Night Tennis and Best Brand Activity at a Festival or Public Event for Ibiza Rocks with Sony Ericsson. It also achieved two finalist spots for Best Brand Experience Campaign and Agency of the Year.

The Event Awards 2008, organised by Haymarket Events and my former employer Event magazine took place on 26 September at London’s Hilton Hotel, Park Lane. Some 600 guests gathered to see trophies handed out in 24 categories ranging from venue awards to Caterer of the Year and Exhibition Organiser of the Year.

Winners included GSP for Agency of the Year, Brand Events for Exhibition Organiser of the Year, Zafferano for Caterer of the Year and Private Drama Events for Entertainment of the Year.
The Innocent Village Fete, which takes place annually in Regent’s Park won its agency Sledge the award for Best Brand Experience Campaign. The Metro Ski and Snowboard Show at Olympia won organiser DMG World Media an award for Most Improved Consumer Exhibition. And agency Sprout (pictured) won Best Use of a Blank Canvas Space for the launch of the Infiniti Europe luxury car brand during the 2008 Geneva Motor Show.

The venue awards went to The Brewery for Best Conference or Purpose Built Venue, Sony Colour Rooms for Unique Venue of the Year and the Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre, which won the Green Award. London’s Royal Parks walked away with Venue In-house Events Team of the Year and Stage One won Supplier of the Year.

Ibiza Rocks

As exclusively revealed in my I'm with the b(r)and article for Media Week, Sony Ericsson is bringing the Balearics back to the UK this summer with four Ibiza Rocks parties. Now, here's the detail:

Agency Iris Experience has developed what I believe to be a unique advocacy driven ambassador programme. A competition has been launched via online music community Xtaster to invite budding promoters to submit their ideas on how they would host the ultimate Ibiza Rocks party. The winners will receive full support to bring alive their very own random rock-fest. Sony Ericsson will also challenge each winning host to capture the action on Sony Ericsson handsets.

Highlights from the parties will be seeded through a network of more than one million youngsters via mobile and online social networking sites, where the best party and content will be voted on. The party hostess with the most-ess will be rewarded with a trip to the Ibiza Rocks closing party with five mates.

Also, starting on 21 July, Channel 4 and its digital offering 4music will run weekly half hour long shows broadcasting footage of the gigs, behind the scenes interviews and action from the island. Iris Experience has also created a social network style microsite off-shoot and online seeding programme as part of the campaign's digital strategy. A digital input has seen the four-year-old Ibiza Rocks event brand come of age.

I'm with the brand!

As the 2008 summer music festival season gets underway, here are a few of the rumours and recommended brand experiences to keep an eye out for:

Sony Ericsson Ibiza Rocks UK parties
Iris Experience will bring Ibiza Rocks to the UK this summer with four Sony Ericsson sponsored parties. These underground events will be promoted through relevant social networking sites and promise surprise guest bands including a Foo Fighters rumour. If you're heading to Ibiza this summer, check out the mayhem at Sony Ericsson's new Ibiza Rocks hotel. Personally I couldn't think of a worse place to book a room for a fortnight's R&R but the Manumission pool parties every Friday night look like they'll be fun.

O2's new improved Blueroom
The exclusive Blueroom for O2 customers only, at Hyde Park's Wireless festival will be open to all this July. O2 customers will still receive priority treatment, extra pampering and freebies but apparently you'll no longer have to leave your mates outside. Register for O2 Afternoons, turn up between 2-4pm (12-4 on the weekends) and O2 will buy you lunch. And if you're one of the first 1,000 through the gate, you'll get a SanDisk memory card loaded with songs by Wireless artistes.

Carling's Cold Beer Amnesty
Swap your warm beer for ice cold Carling at Rock Ness (7-8 June) and the V Festivals (16-17 August). Agency Cake will be roaming the campsites offering visitor's the chance to ditch their tinnies and trade them in for a cold pint.



Strongbow's Bowtime Bar
When you see the yellow roofs, head to Strongbow's new Bowtime Bar, appearing at this year's V Festivals. Agency RPM has kept the live acts and exclusive DJ sets of the former Cider House and added raised dance decks, chill-out seating, speed bars and a photo wall to capture that Bowtime moment of self-reward. Rumour has it they'll also be roaming the campsites offering campers total first pint refreshment for putting up their tents. If you're not a cider fan, you can always swap it in the Carling Cold Beer Amnesty.

innocent Village fete
Now in its second year, the innocent Village Fete will be returning to Regent's Park on 2-3 August. A retreat from the beer tents and the summer headliners and a chance to detox on smoothies. Artistes include The James Taylor Quartet, The Boy Least Likely To and The Ukulele Orchestra. Sledge, the agency behind the fete is planning a welly coconut shy, a huge farmer's market, arts and crafts, a vegetable tent and a cake tent hosted by the Women's Institute.

When there's no better feeling than dancing in a field in the sunshine, it's good to have a few brands around to enhance the experience.